Erik is a baseball fan who has been attending baseball games and snagging baseballs regularly since 2008.

8-2-10 PNC Park

With chief competitor Nick Pelescak out of action for the next two weeks, and my favorite BP team, the Cincinnati Reds in town, I was hoping I would have a big day.

I would – setting a personal 2010 high for balls snagged.

The day would get off to a great start. When I ran in, I spotted a ball in the front row.

Before I could grab it, Andy LaRoche hit a home run into the front row. I tried to make the basket catch leaning forward over two rows, but just missed it. My glove killed the balls’ momentum and I just needed to pick it up in the front row for ball #1. Seconds later, I grabbed that easter egg for ball #2 in this area:Sweet spots: (1 was given away)STATISTICS:Game: 13 balls (9 hit, 2 thrown, 1 device, 1 found)Season: 364 balls (187 hit, 80 thrown, 43 device, 45 found)Games: 56 gamesAverage: 6.50 balls per game2010 Game Balls: 5Career: 942 ballsStreak: 152 consecutive games attended with at least 1 ball snagged.Attendance: 15,172

4 Comments

Hey Erik…long time reader on your blog (first time commenter…how cliche!)…almost on a daily basis. Excellent stuff! Every year, my son, father, and I make a small baseball road trip and for the third year in a row, we are visiting PNC Park…from Canada! I absolutely love Pittsburgh and the ballpark (love the team…even though they can frustrate!) and once again we are coming into town for Sunday’s game against the Rockies. I try to teach my son all of the little things (from yourself and Mr. Hample, of course) on how to get a ball from a player and over the past couple of seasons, he’s managed to get 5 balls…not bad for a shy guy. Anyways, I’ll keep an eye out for you in the bleachers and give a shout out if we cross paths. Cheers!

Hugo,
If there is batting practice, I’ll be there. Usually I come down Sunday mornings and peek in the gate by the Stargell statue to see if the cage is up. If it is, I’ll go in. If not, I leave. I hope its up for this Sunday. A lot of it depends on how late the previous game goes. Thanks for reading the blog and have fun at PNC.

Nice job with 13 balls! Those college kids sound annoying. It’s one thing for a little kid to whine, but not cool when it’s a group of 20 year olds. Seriously, take a glove to the ball game, and you’ll catch more balls.
Anyway, I had one more question for you about Progressive Field. I’ve bought LF bleacher seats for my first game there, but now I’m hearing you’re not allowed to roam the stadium with bleacher seats. Is this true? If so, what do you recommend buying for my second game? I like to walk around, take lots of photos and watch every inning from a different vantage point — that sort of thing.
Any advice would be most appreciated. Thanks, Erik!

You’re allowed to roam the stadium with bleacher seats. You can’t get into the crosswalk behind home plate though without a seat for that section. The bleachers aren’t separate from the rest of the stadium though. You can go into the main concourse and everything.

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